Templar Vampires - Midnight Sun Part 10

"They were out on a date when he slipped into the street and was. .h.i.t by a car. The doctors said he never knew what hit him. I don't know whether that's true or not. I hope it was. It kills me to think he was aware of getting hit and rolled under the car."

Her broken heart reached out to him, begging him ease its pain. "I'm so sorry, suns.h.i.+ne."

He saw she was holding back tears. "So am I," she whispered. "He was a sweet boy. But he was lost, Sebastian."

"You don't have to explain him to me, suns.h.i.+ne. I'm not judging him. How could I? Look at what I've become?"

Someone not judging Christian would be a first. Everyone judged him. Including her, Allie thought guiltily.

She spent years hating him for his addiction, not merely unable butunwilling to separate the drug from the person. Even now, she still hated him for the lost years and the memories they would never have.

"Sorry I'm the buzz kill." She smiled weakly. "I shouldn't have gone on like that."

"Don't be, suns.h.i.+ne. You needed to talk about it and I needed to listen."

Changing hands on the wheel, she steered with her left, her right going to rest on Sebastian's knee.

"Thank you." "For what?"

She absently rubbed her thumb back and forth. "For being you."

Out of the corner of her eye, Allie saw the small smile pulling at Sebastian's lips. She meant what she said, she was glad the events of her life brought her and Sebastian together. With all of the Templars, actually. Funny how G.o.d took one brother and gave her back four.

The rest of the ride to Randall Manor seemed to take forever, yet it wasn't nearly long enough.

Allie was reasonable enough to know she couldn't-nor shouldn't-keep Sebastian from feeding. He needed to do it to continue his existence, even if it galled her to know he'd be taking the blood from another woman. The fact of the matter was, if she wasn't willing to let him tap a vein she better step aside so he could go do what he had to in order to survive.

It didn't mean she had to like it, however.

By the time they arrived at the manor it was plain to see the bloodl.u.s.t returned to him in full force. He looked as if he was in terrible pain, which he likely was since she knew the hunger hurt them. It was also clear Sebastian didn't want to leave her when he made no move to get out of the truck after she pulled to a stop in front of Randall Manor.

"I have to go."

Reaching out to lightly stroke the side of his cheek, Allie gave him an understanding nod and a small smile. "I know, baby."

A rumbling growl came from deep within him when Sebastian cupped her chin. He captured her mouth in a hard, fast kiss. "I want it to be you, Allie," he ground out against her lips.

As soon as those words left him, he was gone.

She sat and watched as he took off on the back of his black and silver custom chopper. Her entire body was numb except for her heart. That particular part hurt so badly she wished she could claw it right out of her chest.

Tears in her eyes, Allie drove away, trying hard not to imagine Sebastian running his hands along another woman's body, coaxing her to open for him and give the one thing Allie couldn't.

She shook her head to dispel the vision, but it was no use. Her Templar bringing another woman pleasure, his mouth pressed against her neck as he took her blood into his own body, branded on her mind.

By the time she reached her house the thin thread of control she clung to in order to keep her emotions in check snapped. She hated the tears falling freely from her eyes and the pain that tore through her. This was the reason she always kept her heart to herself. It couldn't be broken if she kept it to herself.

But she had given it away. Before she even realized it happened, Sebastian owned Allie's heart. And now it was laid bare and cut to the core, the pain of it coursing through her as she dragged herself in.

Through her tears she saw Lex sitting crossed-legged on the floor typing furiously away on her laptop.

Barely sparing her sister a glance, she headed toward the stairs, needing the sanctuary of her room tohide away in until she could get a grip on her emotions.

When Lex looked up, the welcoming smile faded, as did all the color from her face. "Allie? What's wrong?"

Allie shook her head. One word was all it would take for that thread to snap. Taking the stairs two at a time, she only wanted to get to her room and shut herself away from the world.

Lex followed her, wringing her hands nervously. "Please talk to me, sis. You're scaring me."

Allie tossed her keys on the floor and sank down on her bed. "I'm being stupid, that's all."

She was fighting hard to hold in her tears. She didn't want to cry, afraid if she started she'd never be able to stop.

"Are you hurt?"

Allie shook her head. "Not physically, no."

It was her heart that was bleeding.

She gave her heart to Sebastian, who through no fault of his own, managed to shatter it into a million pieces.

Allie peeled off her uncomfortable Goth outfit, slipped into a large tee and men's boxers, and then climbed into bed. Lex settled in next to her. Her sister's love and support was her undoing. The thread of control snapped and a floodgate of tears spilled forth.

As Allie wept, Lex held her, rocking her gently. She whispered soothing words in her ear, as Allie had done when it was Lex who needed comfort.

That's how they stayed for the next hour. Allie in Lex's arms as she cried out her frustration and hurt over what Sebastian was out doing.

Neither of them heard the hum of the motorcycle engine coming from the open window.

Chapter Ten.

Storming into Seacrest, Lucian slapped the newspaper down on the table in front of Tristan. "Another girl is missing."

Buried under a mountain of bills, Tristan looked from the picture of the young woman on the front page to Lucian, who could barely contain his frustration.

"So I've heard. I believe they said her name is Amanda Driver on the news."

"This can't go on, Tris." Lucian began pacing back and forth beside the long table. Though he couldn't age, the stress caused him to look well past the twenty-six years he'd been when he died. "If only I could get a fix on the b.l.o.o.d.y b.a.s.t.a.r.ds! Constantine can't either. Somehow, they've managed to block themselves from us." Tristan leaned back and steepled his fingers under his chin. "Either that or they're mobile, jumping from place to place."

"So they can go on like this indefinitely." Lucian looked about to explode with fury. Such a powder keg of emotion was never a good thing in a vampire.

"I understand your frustration, Luc, believe me I do. But now is the time to remain levelheaded. Too much is on the line for you to go off half-c.o.c.ked. We have to stay focused and keep pus.h.i.+ng the search."

Lucian stabbed his finger at the face of Amanda. "Tell that to her," he thundered. "If she's not f.u.c.king dead already."

Remaining calm in the face of Lucian's fury, Tristan stood and clapped a hand on Lucian's shoulder, stilling his furious pacing. "Most likely sheis dead, or else wis.h.i.+ng to G.o.d she was. All we can do is continue on and hope no other women are going to die before we locate the Daystar."

Lucian turned on Tristan. All the rage inside him was reflected in the abysmal depths of his eyes. "The Daystar could be nothing more than a b.l.o.o.d.y myth for all we know." He let out a frustrated, but empty, breath.

"You know full well we wouldn't have been sent here if the Daystar was mere myth. You of all people know how important it is to hold fast to faith. Don't go down that road again, Knight. Only h.e.l.l awaits you at the end of it."

Lucian's eyes took on a haunted glow as the memories of the past came back to him. Those long tortured years at Chinon, their death and d.a.m.nation, they all rushed to him until he felt as if a hand were squeezing his dead heart.

Fighting past the sensation, he leveled a glare at Tristan. "I'm being played with and you know it," he ground out roughly. "I don't like someone headf.u.c.king me."

"And I do?" Tristan rose and faced off with him. For the first time in years Guardian's civility stripped away to reveal the vampire beneath the facade. "Think you I don't want to rush headlong into war with this sc.u.m? I'd love nothing more than to cut down the legions of renegades until every last one of them is in h.e.l.l where they belong." He calmed somewhat, backing away as the silver fire ebbed in his eyes. "But that's not going to happen, since all I can do is stay cloistered behind these f.u.c.king walls with my hands tied as innocent lives are taken and souls stolen."

As the Guardian, he couldn't stray too far from Seacrest or stay away too long. Not when all of their souls depended on him to fullfil his duty and guard the relic he was chosen to protect.

In the face of Tristan's vehement frustration, Lucian sank down on a chair and dropped his head in his hands. His long, dark brown hair fell forward, curtaining him as he fought back his anger.

Shaking off Tristan's hold, he turned on him with fangs bared. "You didn't see those girls, Tristan. You didn't see what they did to them. You didn't feel the emptiness of the absence of their souls." He lifted his head and rubbed his hands over his eyes, trying to dispel what he saw. "Jesus Christ, I can still see the vacant look in their eyes."

"Easy, Luc." Lucian stood, feeling the night crawl over him, hand instinctively curling around the hilt of the ever-present sword at his hip. He cut Tristan with a blazing gaze filled with retribution. "When I find who's responsible for this, I won't leave enough pieces of them for the sun to burn."

"Like I said, we'll find them and set free the women's souls. You'll have your vengeance for their lives.

We all will."

G.o.d pity the monster once the Knight found him, for no Templar would.

Chapter Eleven.

Five long and lonely days pa.s.sed since that night at The Gate. Five seemingly endless days since Allie last saw Sebastian and all she could think about was how much she missed him.

Unfortunately they'd all been busy with their own tasks as they desperately tried to narrow the search for the Daystar while turning Damascus upside down in a mad dash to find Amanda Driver. It kept Allie and Sebastian from finding time to meet during the night.

The upside to the situation was she got to spend the days with her sister. Having Lex around gave her such a sense of peace she wondered how she'd get through a day once she returned to Florida-if she returned, that is.

Though she hadn't seen Sebastian in nearly a week, they talked by phone every night. Right before dawn he'd call her, drowsy as the new day robbed him of strength and consciousness. He wanted her voice to be the last he heard before he slipped into death-like sleep. Allie stayed awake until he called, before collapsing into bed to catch a few hours sleep before she had to wake and begin her search for the Daystar all over again.

All her hours spent searching the Internet, hunting down ancient texts, pouring through tomes, produced the only new fact thus far, that the Daystar was Druid in origin. Besides that, she found no other information.

The Daystar was buried so deep in history it was like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack.

Much of her research brought her back to the Order of the Knights Templar. Their own history was steeped in mystery, which left them open to crossing paths with other avenues of history, the Daystar being one of them.

With so many questions swirling in her head about the Order, it nearly killed her not to ask. First and foremost she burned to know if the Knights Templar truly possessed the Holy Grail. Next was the Arc of the Covenant and King Solomon's gold, which would explain away where all their wealth came from, a strange thing given the monks all took a vow of poverty.

Basically, the Templar vampires could, in one conversation, end centuries of historical debate.

Unfortunately, even with all of their knowledge, none of them knew jack-s.h.i.+t about the Daystar.

Long hours were spent scouring the Internet trying to find where the legend of the Daystar began. She hoped if she learned that, she'd eventually travel down a path which would lead to the object itself. Since time was against them, she doubted she'd find out enough to save Amanda's life. That was left to the Templars, who went out each night trying to find her. They left no stone unturned, no abandoned structure unexplored. Still, they found nothing, as if the poor girl simply vanished into thin air.

Lying on her stomach, arm hanging off the bed, Allie cracked open one bloodshot and bleary eye. It took a second for her to focus on the clock but when she did, she groaned long and loud. As usual she'd slept the morning away, which meant she'd have to skip eating and rush around like a maniac to get to the Miller's bed and breakfast.

The B&B was in Galilee, which was the next town over from Damascus. Still, she couldn't be late, so she'd have to hurry to get there by four.

If the stereo blasting down in the living room was any indication, Lex was awake already. With Lex in tow, she'd be glad for the extra pair of hands. Working alone, it was h.e.l.l dragging in and setting up all her equipment, which was why she usually only used the hand-helds. Lord knew half the stuff she'd spent a small fortune on she couldn't even lift.

After the Millers, Allie had one more appointment scheduled for the day. One with a sad, lost, and lonely old lady whose mind, hopefully, was fully functioning when Allie got there...

Once the sun dipped bellow the high Appalachian Mountain range, Sebastian woke feeling no better for having slept the day away. If anything, he felt worse than last night.

He spent the days tossing and turning restlessly, the dreamless death-like sleep evading him. When he did manage to slip into unconsciousness, he still wasn't given a reprieve from the hurt on Allie's face. His sleep was haunted by tear-filled emerald green eyes that reflected the betrayal infecting her heart.

Rolling onto his back, Sebastian let out a low groan, every bone in his body aching. His head pounded as if someone was banging on his brain with a hammer, always a wonderful feeling, he thought grumpily.

Lightheaded and weak, if he weren't already dead he'd swear he was on his way to the grave.

The condition he was in now was exactly how he felt after a particularly long and brutal battle back in his living days. Sore as h.e.l.l, bone-weary, and miserable. Only difference was, back then he enjoyed the feeling since it meant he survived another battle with all his body parts intact-for the most part anyway.

He didn't count the gaping wounds Tristan or Lucian had to sew closed to save his sorry hide from bleeding to death. He didn't dare let Constantine or Raphael anywhere near him with a needle. He'd rather do battle with a Saracen than have either of them st.i.tch him.

As much as Sebastian enjoyed the modern conveniences of this age, he didn't belong here. This wasn't the world he was meant for. None of the Templars were. They came from a time when a man's hand was made for a sword. When battle meant having to look into your enemy's eyes before you killed him.

A brutal time filled with violent men and, it was a world he'd always belong in.

He missed the feel of good horseflesh and the quiet that came from the lack of machinery, which was somuch a part of the modern day-to-day living. The land had a newness to it back then, when the earth was still largely untouched by the hand of man.

Born into a long line of warriors, he was trained from birth to hold a sword. He could sit a horse before he learned to walk. He was as out of place in this cus.h.i.+oned era as a modern man would be in his. h.e.l.l, half the men born today wouldn't last a day in his time.

It felt like only yesterday when his father took away his wooden training sword and gave him his first real blade. The pride that pumped through his young body was something he'd never forget.

On that day, he'd gone from child to man in the span of one breath to the next. From that moment on, he trained every day, year after year, injured, broken, and sick near to death-none of it mattered. Nothing would keep him from knowing a single day without the feel of his sword in his hand.

For years he pushed his body past almost inhuman limits for the chance to face off against his sire and know the son surpa.s.sed the father. It was what he trained for, what he bled for, and on the day he bested his father on the lists, Sebastian knew true glory.

That same night he left Rydon Castle to follow Tristan on Crusade.